“THIS IS THE APOCALYPSE!!”

“Oh?…..ok, er..” Jack stared uncertainly at the dishevelled man in front of him, the man seemed rather happy, judging by the maniacal grin, about the apocalypse or making Jack feel uncomfortable he didn’t know.

Jack backed away then continued down the street making sure to keep the apparent doomsday preacher in his peripheral vision for as long as possible, he let Jack go, turned away and began to ramble something incoherent before continuing his ranting.

“THE FOUR WILL LEAD US TO SALVATION!!”

Jack picked up the pace. He wasn’t so sure it was the apocalypse, looking around York City high street, there were plenty of people around, going about their daily lives, walking, talking, shopping and just generally ambling around as people do.

But at the same time, things had definitely changed, looking around you could see it, people had this edge, a nervousness to them, when before they probably would have been quite relaxed, cheerful even. It wasn’t just the people though, as Jack walked on and looked around he could see various shops and stores selling items that would not have been typical two years ago.

Weapons, armour, emergency medical supplies, emergency rations, emergency everything really, anything and everything you need in case shit hits the fan and you’re in the splash zone. As well as these useful implements of salvation and destruction however, there were much more common items that would also not have seen such widespread use if it hadn’t been for the phenomena which started two years before. Charcoal, giant bags of it stacked high in many shops, water fountains and aquariums lined the walls in many places, bags of concrete, sand and compost as well, and fans too, the type you find in the corner of the living room or on an office desk.

Jack sighed heavily, sadly there was nothing he could use there, while literally everyone else was busily perusing the various wares with full intent to buy he could only walk on.

It was around midday and Jack was just getting in for work at the office for a late shift, he’d stopped in York high street to get a bite to eat beforehand and was ready to start work.

“Hey Jackie! Just gettin in? Ready to work hard?” One of Jack’s co-workers Brian, greets Jack as he enters the changing room.

“Ready is probably not the word I'd use, resigned I think is the word, yeah put me down as resigned please.” Jack replied as hung up his coat.

“Hah! Me too, see ya out there.” Brian left and Jack soon followed.

As he got into the office and sat down to log in to a computer he overheard some of his colleagues discussing one of the only topics that everyone had been discussing for the past two years now.

“There was another attack last night, I heard some people actually died!”

“Really? It wasn’t on the news, but it doesn’t surprise me, the attacks are getting more frequent, especially at night.”

“Mm, that’s why I’m not doing those late shifts anymore, it's fine in summer when it’s still light out and there are plenty of people but when it gets darker….”

“I dunno, I’ve been hearing that they’ve been appearing in the daytime too.”

“Really? I-”

“I think they spawn at both night and day.” Jack interrupted. “But they mostly come out at night to….you know….pick off stragglers, normal predatory behaviour.” Jack inserted himself into the conversation, even two years on it was still a fascinating subject.

“Uh, hey Jack aren’t you on the late shift tonight?” One of his colleagues asked.

“Yep, and the rest of this week too” Jack cheerfully replied.

“Be careful ok, it’s September so it's beginning to get dark sooner in the day. '' They said, looking concerned.

“Ah don’t worry, I’m quick on my feet so I can always run like hell, or atleast run faster than the slowest guy in the group.” Jack gave a cheeky grin, but it faded when his colleagues didn’t laugh and just looked concerned.

Jack shrugged and turned back to his computer to get started with his work. It was a normal boring day, he worked hard sometimes, he stared vacantly at his computer screen some other times and before he knew it his shift was over, it was eight pm and he was ready to go home. Of course these days he had the option of staying overnight til his next shift but he didn’t fancy that, this place still didn’t have good wifi. So he got his coat on and headed outside. It was looking a little dim outside but not too cold and no wind to speak of, he walked across the car park and reached the road, there were no cars about and no people.

Jack walked down the road down to the bus stop, on his way he saw one man, walking swiftly in the opposite direction, head down. As Jack reached the bus stop he looked at the live time for the next bus's arrival. It would be another thirty minutes it stated, which was probably an optimistic estimation Jack thought. It seemed he would be walking home tonight.

“Not to worry, just keep to the well lit areas, keep the head on swivel, everythings gonna be just fiiiiine.” Although he couldn’t deny that tiny amount of nervousness bubbling in the pit of his stomach. Jack sighed and continued to walk down the street. It was around two miles to his place, a little way past the train station. He could probably make it in around forty minutes. The first three quarters of the journey would be ok, it was all shops, bars and main roads with lots of street lights and people but after that came the quieter residential areas which were especially quiet at night.

As predicted most of the journey was uneventful, it was after passing the train station and turning down a sidestreet that things began to get interesting. Jack thought he heard some shouting ahead of him, the clash of metal and low rumbling.

“Haaah.” Jack sighed, “It could just be teenagers, I could deal with teenagers, probably.” He considered heading back and around but that would be a massive detour and it would take forever, so he continued on whilst keeping a sharp ear out. As he progressed the sounds became clearer, yep someone was definitely fighting a something down there, maybe he could just sidle around the edge of the fight. Ok that’s the plan. As Jack came to a turning he peeked around the corner.

“Ok fuck.”

There were several people, all with swords and axes flailing about with them in the air, Jack looked up and saw what they were flailing at. Giant insects, around two feet long, they looked like wasps but with extremely vibrant red and yellow banded colouring with a bit of black mixed in, the type of colour you see on a normal sized wasp and go “oh hell no”. Even from Jack’s position he could see clearly the extremely large menacing looking stingers they all sported.

“New plan, I’ll just wait.” Jack ducked back around the corner and hoped he hadn’t been spotted. His new plan however was a spectacular failure straightaway, he heard a loud cry of exertion and one of the wasps came tumbling towards his hiding spot, the wasp and Jack were in full view of each other. The wasp was lying on the ground right in front of him.

“Oh please be dead, please don’t get up,” the wasp got up.

“Fuck,” Jack backed away and the wasp turned around and spotted him, alone, vulnerable. Luckily though one of the wasp’s wings seemed twisted, so it could only scuttle after him. Jack continued to back away but tripped over some bricks, the wasp was nearly on him, it lunged and Jack kicked out making the wasp back away. He tried to shout out for help, but drawing attention to himself on purpose had never come easy to Jack and right at that moment he found fear had paralysed his voice, his heart beat rapidly. He looked around desperately for a weapon he could use and only found the pile of bricks, he picked one up and threw it at the creature, he missed but made it flinch, the next one he threw hit it in the eye. That seemed to stun it so Jack seized the opportunity grabbed another brick and fell onto the wasp repeatedly bashing it with more and more frenzied strikes, the wasps exoskeleton was surprisingly hard and the first few blows didn’t do much damage but eventually there was a crack and the wasp stopped moving, just occasionally twitching.

“Huh, that was easier than I thought!” Jacked panted heavily, doubling over, hands on his knees. He heard voices from around the corner, it seemed the fight was done.

“Hey! I think one escaped this way, lets go check, I think I wounded it though.”

The group of people who had been fighting earlier tromped around the corner and came upon the sight of the victorious Jack crouching on wobbly legs over his slain opponent looking pale and struggling not to vomit.

“Well well, what’s this then, a kill stealer?” One of the larger men swaggered forward with a smirk on his face, he looked to be a little over 6 feet tall and was bedecked in dark padded leather armour and carried a baseball bat wrapped in metal plates.

“Uh…no I-”

“Oh leave him alone Barry, it’s obvious the wasp attacked him as he was passing by, look I think he used those bricks to kill it, good job.” A brown haired woman in light grey plated armour standing next to Barry spoke up, she gave Jack a grin and thumbs up. She was pretty. Jack smiled back.

“Huh, whatever, lets just harvest it and get back to the hall, I’m starving.” One of the other people came forward with a knife and approached the defeated wasp.

“Uh-uh nope, this guy got the kill so he gets the reward.” The woman spoke up again.

“WHA-” Barry looked ready to explode but the woman gave him a glare and he backed down, she took the knife from the other man and kneeled down over the wasp, she stabbed into it and seemed to carve further into it before pulling out what seemed to be some sort of yellow sack about the size of an adults fist. She examined briefly from all sides, it seemed to shimmer and ripple slightly along with the air around it, before sealing it in a plastic bag she pulled from her pocket and handing it over to Jack. He accepted it gingerly, huh, it was squishy.

“Here ya go, just take this to any pharmacy and they’ll pay you upfront for it.” She said.

“Um yeah I heard pharmacies are doing that sort of thing these days, how much do you think I’ll uh…get?”

“Probably between a hundred to a hundred and fifty pounds, it can vary.”

“Whoah! Shit really? I’d probably have to do a day’s work just to earn that much normally, all I did here was bash something in with a brick! Two minute job tops, I might consider a career change.” Jack was intrigued.

She smiled at Jack, “Well the services of Hunters are always in demand, if you're good it’s very profitable, even if you just join the neighbourhood watch it’s decent money, it’s just really dangerous, not a lot of people go in for it, erm what element are you?”

Ah, Jack had really hoped he wouldn’t be asked this question, it’s not like he was ashamed of it or anything, it was nothing he did, it was just the hand he was dealt so to speak. He didn’t really want to say, but he knew that they would probably be able to sense it from him if they reached out. He didn’t see any option for leaving and was suddenly feeling rather defiant, probably the adrenaline from the “fight” with the wasp.

Jack looked her dead in the eye. “I’m lightning element”.

There was a moment of silence before loud guffaws could be heard from Barry. “HAH HAH HAH, HE’S A SPARKER! HAH HAH HAH!!! AND HE WANTS TO BE A HUNTER!!” Barry doubled over in laughter slapping his knees wheezing, the rest of the crew joined in. The women just looked disappointed and then turned to Jack with what he recognized as pity.

“Um, maybe you should reconsider, um…you know how it….you people-I mean lightning elements can’t….you know…” she trailed off awkwardly not looking him in the eye.

“Yeah I know.” Jack responded bitterly, he balled up his fists, he could feel his face heating up, fuck why did he say anything! He should have just kept his mouth shut, turned around and walked away.

“Um well see ya around, you can keep that venom gland, um…bye.” The woman turned around quickly and led the group up the alley.

“SEE YA SPARKY!” Barry cheerfully waved at Jack with a mocking sneer, then blew a large plume of smoke out of his mouth in Jack’s direction before marching off, Jack coughed and waved his hand to disperse the smoke. Jack waited until the group was out of sight before sighing and leaning against a wall. He thought he was used to the pity and sometimes contempt but for some reason that bitterness he usually internalised was starting to become anger instead, he stared at the wasp. After a few minutes when he was sure the group was far enough away, he got up and started walking home.